MONROE TWP. — When Wes Vecchio and Barbara Wiley left for Pennsylvania five years ago, they were hoping to find work and a lower cost of living. They always intended to come back to New Jersey.

“But this is not the way we wanted,” Vecchio said.

“Not the way we wanted” meant coming home without a job lined up. It meant coming home with nothing but the family car and the clothes on his back. But worst of all, it meant coming home without a daughter.

A fire destroyed the family’s home in Shamokin, Pa., in early December, killing the couple’s daughter, 13-year-old Melissa “Missy” Pangburn.

Vecchio suffered a heart attack while trying to head back into the house for his daughter, and had a heart catheterization on Thursday. Wiley suffered permanent muscle and ligament damage in her legs when a backdraft knocked her down a flight of stairs.

“I tried to save her,” Vecchio said. “But I couldn’t.”

For the past few weeks, Vecchio, Wiley and their 9-month-old daughter, Meadow, have been staying at the Williamstown home of Vecchio’s grandmother. Both need to find new jobs; they are currently living on the grandmother’s fixed income.

Wiley describes Missy as “a girl any parent would want.” She was an honor roll student who loved dancing and music, and a born adventurer for whom no roller coaster was too tall.

“Anything she was interested in, she would put in 100 percent,” Wiley said. “She was a girl that tried everything once.”

Wiley, a nurse’s aide, was crippled by grief in the weeks following her daughter’s death.

“I stayed in the house,” she said. “I couldn’t deal with life. I didn’t want to live, to be honest.”

Vecchio took over preparing for the move back to New Jersey, where both he and Wiley are from originally. The couple has family scattered throughout Gloucester and Salem counties, and had some clothing at relatives’ houses from previous visits. And somehow, the fire that destroyed their home spared their family photos, stored in a box in the basement.

“Which was remarkable,” said Wiley.

The situation is a bad one, but help is on the way. After Wes got in touch with Pitman’s Angels of God Clothing Closet, the organization offered to hold a collection specifically for the family. Now, Angels of God will collect food, clothing and financial donations in the family’s name during the hours of 9 a.m. to noon Monday and Tuesday, and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. To schedule a special appointment for donations, call Elissa Eystad at 856-625-8652. The clothing closet is located at 334 S. Broadway, Pitman. For more information, visit angelsofgod.org.